Agent Setup: Aradial RADIUS Server Agent for Visitor Wi-Fi Access

Product: HID Visitor Manager

Your Need: Guests on-site need Wi-Fi access to access the internet for the duration of their visit.

Our Solution: Automatically provision Wi-Fi credentials to the Aradial RADIUS server once the visitor checks in. Also, de-provision the credentials from the server once the visitor checks out.

Summary Overview:

The agent connects HID Visitor Manager and Aradial RADIUS server. This document explains how to set up the agent, configure the agent, and uninstall the agent.

HID Visitor Manager leverages Aradial as the RADIUS (Remote Authentication Dial-In User Service) server, which can be configured to connect to Wi-Fi services and provision Wi-Fi access to visitors.

The Aradial RADIUS Server Agent automatically creates a Wi-Fi account when a visitor is checked in, and the Wi-Fi account is automatically de-provisioned when the visitor checks out or the visit expires.

Once the visitor is invited for a visit, Wi-Fi credentials (username and password) are created for the visitor. These credentials are provisioned to Aradial once the visitor checks in for their visit. At the time of check-out, the credentials are de-provisioned from the Aradial RADIUS Server.

The document uses a combination of high-level feature descriptions, representative screen images, and specific sequences to perform the configuration and integration of HID Visitor Manager with Aradial.

HID VM demo logo v3 Grey.png

Applicable Roles: User must be logged in as Visitor Administrator

Note: This feature is not included in any of the core packages. It is purchased as an add-on.

Prerequisites

  • Ownership of an Aradial RADIUS license. Please reach out to the Aradial presales team to procure the right license for you (presales@aradial.com).

  • Aradial Server is installed and running properly.

  • Aradial add-on is enabled for the tenant on HID Visitor Manager.

  • The operator account has all the privileges to log into Aradial.

  • The user must be logged in as Visitor Administrator.

Intended Audience

This guide is intended to be used by administrative and technical staff during the integration of HID Visitor Manager with the Aradial Server. To get the most from this guide, the readers should have an understanding and familiarity with:

  • The local computer environment at the site where the Aradial Server is installed.

  • HID Visitor Manager, agents, and the Aradial Server and its components.

Section I: Installation

This section describes the procedures for downloading, installing, and uninstalling the HID VM Agents in the desktop/server environment.

Download the Installer

  1. Log in to the HID Visitor Manager application as Visitor Administrator.

  2. Navigate to the Settings module > Downloads.

  3. Click the WorkforceID Agents Installer to download the HID Visitor Manager agent installer.

    image-20250219-051941.png

  4. Copy the downloaded file (OnPremAgentSetup.zip) to the OnPrem server where you intend to run the agent.

Launch the Installer Application

Follow the steps below to install the HID Visitor Manager Wifi Agent:

  1. Launch the installer application (OnPremAgentSetup.zip). The HID Global – Agent Setup wizard appears. Click the Next button to continue.

    image-20250219-052202.png

  2. Enter the operator-specific WorkforceID URL, WorkforceID Username, and WorkforceID Password provided to log in to the tenant. Then, click the Next button to continue.

    image-20250219-052250.png

  3. Select the WIFI (WIFI) system and PACS version (version 8.1) from the appropriate drop-down menus.

    image-20250219-052320.png

  4. Select an installation path for the agent files. Then, click Next to begin installation.

    image-20250219-052351.png

When all the steps are completed, you will see the following screen, indicating successful installation. Click Finish.

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Section II: Configuration

This section describes how to configure the Aradial agent in the HID Visitor Manager application.

Launch the System Configuration Manager

  1. Log in to HID Visitor Manager as the Visitor Administrator using your tenant ID credentials.

  2. Click on the App Selector, then go to Settings module > General tab.

  3. The System Configuration page appears. Launch the Systems Configuration Manager by clicking the Launch link.

    image-20250219-053055.png

Clicking the launch button opens a new window called HID Visitor Manager Config. The integrations page appears with a list of all agents. Click the Wi-Fi agent to start configuring it.

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Configure the Aradial Agent

General tab:

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Advanced tab (Agent Configuration)

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  • CertificateFileName – The path to the certificate file. Sets the certificate value using the specified file. Example: "Self Signed.pfx". This file must be replaced manually in the installed folder (C:\Program Files\HID Global\SAFE\WIFI). This parameter is applicable only when CertificationAuthenticationEnabled config is set to Yes.

  • WifiEnabled – Enables or disables Wi-Fi. Set to "yes" to enable.

  • WifiMode – Sets the Wi-Fi mode. Example: "ARADIAL"

Advanced tab (Agent Configuration Aradial):

image-20250219-053420.png

  • ApiGroupname: This is the group to which the visitors are added in the Aradial RADIUS system. By default, this value is kept as Default.

  • ApiPassword: The password of the Aradial RADIUS server API.

  • ApiURL: The URL to connect to the Aradial RADIUS server

  • ApiUserName: The UserName of the Aradial RADIUS server API.

  • Certificate Decryption Password: The password to decrypt the certificate is to be used as an additional form of authentication.

  • CertificationAuthenticationEnabled: If the certificate authentication has to be enabled, this value must be changed to Yes. Otherwise, this value is to be kept as No.

Section III: Start the Agent Service

After configuring your Wifi agent in the HID Visitor Manager Configuration app, you are ready to start the agent service.

  1. Open the Services panel.

  2. Locate the WorkforceID Wi-Fi Agent service in the Services panel. Click Start.

    image-20250219-053921.png

Any Wi-Fi configuration change on the HID Visitor Manager Configuration App requires a Wi-Fi Agent Service restart to take effect.

Testing

This section provides testing scenarios to check whether the configured agent is functioning properly. The testing verifies that when a visitor admin hosts a visit, the visitor receives the Wi-Fi credentials, and these credentials are broadcast to the Aradial Server during check-in.

This section demonstrates Wi-Fi provisioning and de-provisioning for Walk-In visits. However, it also applies to Scheduled and Kiosk Scheduled visits.

Wi-Fi provisioning for Walk-in visits via Kiosk is currently not supported.

Prerequisite for Testing

Before you begin testing, configure the settings below that enable the visitor admin to send WiFi credentials to visitors during check-in:

Enable Wi-Fi for Location

  1. Navigate to Admin Module > Locations.

  2. Select the location where you want to provide Wi-Fi credentials to visitors.

  3. Go to the Preferences tab.

  4. Enable the configurations highlighted in the red box (as shown in the image below).

    image-20250219-054159.png

  5. Click SAVE.

Update Badge Template to Print Wi-Fi Credentials

  1. Navigate to the Badge Designer in the Admin application.

  2. Open the badge template for the visitor and add the text fields for the Wi-Fi username and password. Bind the fields to the following values for printing the username and password on the badge:

    1. Wi-Fi username: WiFiUserName

    2. Wi-Fi password: WiFiPassword

  3. SAVE the changes made to the badge.

Wi-Fi Provisioning

  1. Log in to HID Visitor Manager as a Visitor Administrator.

  2. Navigate to Visitors module > Check In.

  3. Click the WALK-IN VISIT button in the top right corner.

  4. Add a host and a visitor in the Visitors section. Then, click the SUBMIT REQUEST button.

    image-20250219-054330.png

  5. On the visitor's Check In page, the visitor administrator can view the Wi-Fi credentials (as shown below). The system broadcasts these Wi-Fi credentials to the Wi-Fi System (Aradial).

    image-20250219-054357.png

  6. Print the badge. If the Wi-Fi credentials are configured on the badge template, they will be printed on the badge assigned to the visitor

  7. Once the visitor admin checks in the visitor, the system broadcasts these Wi-Fi credentials to the Wi-Fi System Aradial Server.
    Audit Log:

    image-20250219-054441.png

Wi-Fi De-provisioning At Check-out

During visitor check-out, Wi-Fi credentials will be automatically removed from the Aradial system, but not from the HID Visitor Manager.

Audit log:

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Uninstallation

File Cleanup

To uninstall the OnPrem agent, the user can delete the installed agent folder from the file system at the path where the agent was originally installed.

Windows Service Cleanup

To remove the Windows service from the on-prem system where the agent was installed, you must do the following:

  • As an administrator, open up a command prompt cmd.exe

  • Run the command:

    sc delete <<service name>>

  • Refresh (or re-open) the Windows Services dialog to see the service removed.

Deletion of Folder

Remove Folder from C:\Program Files\HID Global\SAFE\WIFI

Agent logs can be found at C:\ProgramData\HID Global\SAFE\Common\Logs\WIFIAgentLog